Fjord Lives Lives   Label: Eulogy Release Date: 01/23/07

I might as well include a disclaimer and say that a lot of “metalcore” or metallic hardcore hasn’t been my bag lately. In fact, I tend to avoid the genre like a venereal disease. While there are some groups out there that have gotten it right(The Dream is Dead, anyone?), some bands have fallen into the same tired formula. Where’s the excitement and originality that bands like Kiss It Goodbye injected into the genre? What happened to a simple, yet confrontational pulse that
bands like Chokehold and Indecision threw into the mix? Why are we advertised bands who have a freakish fanbase consisting of kids who were brought up on Slipknot and A New Found Glory? Read the rest of this entry »

When we interviewed French Kiss Records’ The Big Sleep back in November, Sonia mentioned that she had really fallen in love with The Thermals (particularly “Pillar of Salt”). Thus, I was pretty excited for them when I read that they would be opening up for The Thermals on a big national tour, and I made sure I got myself a ticket for the Brooklyn show. I went for The Big Sleep, but The Thermals are what made the night fantastic.

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Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank   Label: Epic Release Date: 03/20/07

I’m rather convinced Modest Mouse can never succeed with the majority of their core fanbase ever again. To remake The Lonesome Crowded West or The Moon and Antarctica would be pointless; to diverge from them would be sacreligious. And maybe that’s why they’re making music “more accessible;” the indie eleite have already made up their minds and closed the door. We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank leaked weaks ago, and I’ve heard almost nothing and negativity from the old school fans, but I just can’t quite figure it out. I will certainly concede that Good News… was not a fantastic album, but We Were Dead… is really, really good. Close to great, even. Read the rest of this entry »

Adult Why Bother   Label: Thrill Jockey Release Date: 03/20/07

What happens when its getting late in the night at your cities hipest
dance night? All the pretty skinny ladies dressed in their leggins are
hangin with “white girl”? You haved on too many Sparks and are feeling
restless. The PBR’s are almost sold out at the bar. I know what you can
do. Head over to that DJ booth and if he knows whats up. You tell that
superstar of the night that its time to grow this crowd up. How? your
probably wondering now. Adult! thats how. “Why Bother” you ask well
that is the name of this Detroit duo’s fourth release. This is according to
their own press relese sheet “uneasy listening music for uneasy times.”
With names of songs like “I Feel Worse When I’m with You”, “Inclined to
Vomit” and “Plagued by Fear” I was a little scarred at first. However
giving this a listen through a few times it has really grown on me. The
first time I played this it took me by suprise. Its very brash, noisy,
and experimental. At times the beats are very spastic and chaotic other
times soothing baselines. The vocals are very 80’s new wave in the vein
of Missing Persons. This is very much a forward thinking dance punk
album. This will have people on the dance floor either raising their hands for
more or sending those people who were close to the edge of inebriation to
the bathroom. This album is for those wanting to step over the line.

Adult - MySpace

Lusine Podgelism  Label: Ghostly International Release Date:03/20/2007

“Podgelism” strikes at first as strange, but inviting. This is experimental electronic music. Is it ambience? Is it dance? Is that relevant? What is notable is that either blips and bloops have lost their curiosity, or the tracks on this album avoid the alienating effect of work laboring too hard to be “Intelligent Dance Music” (one of the dimmest and most offensive labels for a genre ever). This collection of Lusine’s material remixed by several abstract electronic artists, including himself, is rarely less than pleasant to listen to. Yes, there are layers of subtle effects, strange noises, and skittery beats with erratic dynamics. For a remix collection, however, it is remarkably cohesive, and the elements create a warm, effervescent vibe on the whole. The album sails on grooves it does not take a mathematician to enjoy, a sweet, mellow package for modern machine music mavericks. Read the rest of this entry »

El-P I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead   Label: Definitive Jux Release Date: 03/20/07

El-P’s first solo long player, “Fantastic Damage,” was a masterpiece of dystopian, sci-fi, modern hip-hop angst in which a hyperwired, junk cluttered future shock mixed imperceptively with a paranoid, enraged vision of the present as an assaulted landscape in which the individual is terrorized and bombarded without relief by corporatism, technology, and corruption. The exact same can be said of his long awaited follow up, “I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead.” The temptation is to criticize an artist for repeating himself, but I think this is missing the point entirely. El-P seems to have reached an artistic state like that of filmmaker David Cronenberg, who also makes very individual works haunted obsessively by the same themes, styles, and motifs over and over to exhausting and exhilarating effect. El-P’s albums and Cronenberg’s venerial dramedies also share a flair for devising perverse images of the technologic invading, clashing and merging with the flesh, the individual, the soul. Read the rest of this entry »

LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver     Label: Capitol Release Date:03/20/2007

It appears the jig is up, and the man who persuaded thick glasses to dance has gone and gotten mature. The thing is, he’s even better now. As half of the DFA, the production duo and label heads most responsable for forcing the beauty of electronic dance music into the once stubbornly funkless world of independent rock (and vice versa), and as LCD Soundsystem, source of the aging music snob anthem “Losing My Edge,” James Murphy has been a crucial maverick kicking up shit the whole way along. On “Sound of Silver,” he doesn’t sound like he’s sweating it. Read the rest of this entry »

This past weekend I took a small vacation to one of my favorite cities Phillidelphia, and being a music minded town, it was impossible for me not to do some “field reporting” on the music while i was there. Read the rest of this entry »

Let me start off by saying that an hour after this show I was still breathing heavy, and now, the morning after, I am sore all over from the almost two hours of dancing that went on at this show. That dancing is credited to, of course, Of Montreal and not so much the other bands. But let’s take this one act at a time, shall we?

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Antibalas Security Label: ANTI- Release Date:03/06/2007

The new Antibalas album, “Security,” opens with “Beaten Metal,” a title that describes the crystalline clanks and clacks that distinguish the percussion.  In just under six minutes the track builds into something undeniably propulsive and funky, but there is a tension, as sinister keyboard lines slither in and out, casting a pall.  The horn bursts seem a little more atonal than one might expect, as they seem to argue against each other more than strut in unison. Read the rest of this entry »